So, I’m going to keep this brief. I got way too ballsy this past week. Too many tournaments, too much risk, and not enough lineups to increase variation. I got slammed with wrong choices in having Demaryius / Julio in almost all line-ups. I got hurt by Lacy’s lack of pass-catching (and too much emphasis on home success for GB) & JC’s injury. TE & D/ST picks were bad, as well. Charles Clay didn’t do anything & Bennett was targeted 11 times but caught only 4 in what played out as an underperform. Jaguars got shellacked and the Giants, for whatever reason, created minimal pressure Sunday night. Well – that’s a lot of bad in spots that statistically should have been consistently high-floor.

So, the good? Rivers & Bell saved my ass Monday night so I didn’t get blanked. I wasn’t on ABrown due to Vick’s lack of rapport with him, which was good in a fade-case. Allen Robinson performed with Blake Bortles (who I was on in a few leagues). Rivers had a few good games. Brady/Edelman worked out after the 4th qtr touchdown but Gronk disappointed for how expensive he was. Dion Lewis was productive. I was not on Devonta Freeman and he continued to have a nice game. I also faded a good Doug Martin spot (suspect weather, minimal passing potentially). I figured that I would have scored with a few lineups in the high 140’s but I didn’t. Only one lineup hit 165+ and cashed on DK.

Week 6
I will try to do better – buckled down and read through more of Jonathan Bales’ series Fantasy Football for Smart People. Staying consistent with bankroll management and being diligent with a process weekly will be vital in success. To compile the statistics, I’ll likely use a trial for DailyFantasyNerd or Fantasy Labs to ensure I have the data in one spot. I could create a page for myself, but that will be fine-tuning what I want to use consistently.

So, let’s start with defenses. I read through Bill Barnwell of Grantland’s NFL Statistical Temperature. Without looking at this week’s schedule, I pared down defenses that I would be interested in playing, depending on home/away, weather, opponent, in no particular order.

Denver, Arizona, GB, NYJ (w/out a D TD so far) are the top tier. TEN, DET, NE, CIN, SEA, CAR would be the next, likely. PHI, MIN and ATL have been making plays but could be inconsistent depending on game flow.

RB’s – Forte, Foster, TJ Yeldon look good so far. Ryan Mathews has been productive. Do we continue to ride Devonta?
WR’s – Hopkins is just gobbling up targets for ppr leagues. AJ Green could be interesting – I feel like Dalton alternates between his receivers/tight ends. Just focuses in on them. EIfert was last week so Green could be this week. We cannot forget about TASER, Bryan Mears’ new statistic – anticipatory of red zone regression for touchdowns (potentially). Golden Tate, Amari Cooper, Demaryius Thomas & Keenan Allen headline it. Of those, I’d think Cooper & Golden Tate are most likely to score (Denver needs to get NEAR the red zone first and Keenan may be left out since Antonio is back). Let’s flip a coin between Hurns/Robinson again or play them both – that’s worked before. Snead on a Thursday night could be a fade position, or minimal play because of the cheap cost still. We all THINK it will be high-scoring… but will it on a Thursday with Julio in pain? I’d like to think that it won’t be and be in better position Sunday.

TE’s – I’ll have some action with Gronk & Gates. Chargers will have to throw against GB. Eifert played incredibly on Sunday (thanks to that for my main season-long league). Barnidge is apparently a) a real-life football player and b) target monster. Charles Clay is near the top of TASER as well, but with Tyrod potentially out, I may want to avoid that Bills line-up altogether.

These are my initial thoughts – I’ll see today and tomorrow what I can put together and post going forward.

Good luck to the ALDS teams today in their Game 5’s!

Happy to say my Red Wings in NHL are an impressive 3-0-0 with a +7 differential to go with the Broncos 5-0. Keep it up!

Yup, that’s right! FanDuel – there wasn’t a contest that I didn’t place in. Mainly due to the fact that my lineups did very well in all of the 50/50’s, DoubleUps and free-rolls. However, on draftkings, where I played a majority of tournaments, I was very close to min. cash or not in the money at all.

For week 3, I was gone/without service all weekend, so the few lineups I had in, I minimally cashed/lost. 2 weeks in a row on DK that I have lost a few $ here and there (not to mention the fun runs I took at LoL Championships as well as Wed-Fri spread of MLB games – not wise when teams were already clinched or didn’t care).

Fanduel results:
5 entries played – 4 wins – 2 ticket (survivor advance, barely)
I don’t remember where I read it, but there was an analysis done on larger 50/50’s where, assuming you’re on average better than a majority of players, you have a greater success rate in larger pools. So far, that’s proved to be correct.

Another Flacco / Ravens stack for Thurs-Sun produced the 112, which didn’t go well in any of the 3 entries (-$5).

So we’ll see. Seems consistent with stacks where I’ll go 2 for 4 and hope that the stacks hit bigger. This week, they didn’t do as much because of the chalk not performing as well. The few good calls at TE and Devonta saved those stacks to at least cash.

We’ll see how the next week goes – I may end up trying more double-ups to at least build bankroll.

I woke up this morning to news from the lineup optimizer on FantasyPros: “CONGRATS! You came in 14th out of 1,728 players in our DraftKings Lineup Contest. Claim your $20 DraftKings Prize: You’re all set. The $20 prize will be credited to the DraftKings use”

Great news! I only entered 2 lineups since I had forgot about it, and my Ravens stack did very well.

I have really enjoyed fantasypros – found them last year before the season so I have a pro subscription for seasonal fantasy and have found their optimizer one of my favorites. Nearly all of the data is pooled from experts across the industry.

First, let’s speak of Fanduel, where I played 3 lineups in a total of 6 contests. I had 2 H2H (one was free, other for $2), 1 50/50 league at $1, 1 DoubleUp for $2, another for $10, and a $4k tourney for $1. I won both H2H and the $10 double up. Something like $16.00 in fees for a simple winnings of $23, +$7 (~38%). The TeamRankings Football Championship Week 2 was my best scoring lineup – 123.2, good for 83 of 535. Lineup was saved by Antonio Brown (32) and Larry Fitz (33.2), Jordan Matthews garbage time TD (17), and consistent scoring from Bailey (8) and Texans D (6), but dragged by Brees, Abdullah, Lynch, ASJ.

So, after 1 week I am in the black quite a bit, despite an overall losing record! Who doesn’t like those tournaments?!

Last year I was going more off of a feel for playing and breaking even. This year, I will look for tournament opportunities for overlay and pad with a better performance on h2h, triple ups or 50/50s. Fortunately, for overlays (where value is much higher per entry because the guaranteed money does not meet the number of entries), I stumbled upon a number of sites that aid in finding these. Namely, Super Lobby! which combines Draftkings and Fanduel (among others) to show overlay in tournaments. Incredibly useful for the people who are trying to be smart about entry fees.

For those that are curious how I did this past week, continue reading. Otherwise, I will post who I’m looking at and what I’m doing for Week 2 in the coming days! Again, if you’re looking to play or take a shot: Draftkings link! – Remember to search for a promo code on your favorite fantasy / insider website to valuable premium subscriptions (Rotogrinders, 4for4, fantasypros, teamrankings). Fanduel if you prefer .5 ppr and Kickers